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After second look, Markman grants disqualification in criminal case

Robert Winburn was convicted of murder in 1990 and his appeal bubbled its way up to the Michigan Supreme Court.

Winburn filed a motion under MCR 2.003, seeking to have Justice Stephen J. Markman disqualify himself from the case. Winburn alleged the 1990 conviction had “overlapping facts” with a federal investigation by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms of narcotics trafficking in which Winburn was allegedly involved.

[D]efendant has established no connection between the facts of the 1990 murder that are currently in dispute and the circumstances of the federal drug investigation in 1992, except that defendant was involved in both matters.

Thus, the crux of defendant’s argument is simply that I participated in a decision (not to prosecute defendant) nearly two decades ago, and that I am now participating in another decision concerning a different crime in which defendant was allegedly also involved.

Defendant has now filed a motion for “clarification of material facts.”

In this motion, defendant expands upon the record and presents new evidence supporting his previously unexplained and unsubstantiated assertion that there are “overlapping facts” between the two matters.

This evidence, in my judgment, does establish a connection between the instant appeal — in which I would participate as a judge — and the prior criminal investigation– in which I participated as prosecutor.

Under these circumstances, I believe that my disqualification is warranted, and accordingly I recuse myself from the consideration of this matter.